In garment bags of the type used in traveling, the clothes are packed in the bag when the bag is in an extended or unfolded vertical hanging position. The clothes are suspended from hangers and the hangers are connected to a trolley within the interior of the bag. To retain the clothes in the position within the bag when it is folded into a suitcase-like configuration, a belt-like strap in the midsection of the bag is fastened around the clothes. This strap is particularly important because the clothes are bent around it and suspended from it when the bag is folded in the suitcase-like configuration. Without the center strap, the clothes would shift and slide into piles in the bottom of the bag when the bag was folded. One disadvantage of the center strap is that it has a tendency to wrinkle the clothes, particularly when it is tightened securely enough to prevent the clothes from slipping and crumpling within the bag.
Wrinkles are also frequently caused at the upper and lower ends of garments carried in the garment bag. Because the clothes are bent double when the bag is folded in its suitcase-like configuration, the tops and bottoms of the garments are at the bottom of the folded bag. The weight of the clothes tends to pull them down into bunches. A typical trolley at the upper end of the bag (which is located at the bottom when the bag is folded into the suitcase-like configuration) usually has the capability to prevent the hangers from falling off, even when the hangers become inverted after the bag is folded into the suitcase-like configuration. However, the shoulders of the garments may slip downward over the inverted hangers and wrinkling may still occur.
At the lower end of the garment bag, the clothes are usually left free. If the garment is a long one, such as a lady's dress or a long coat, the bottom part of it is usually wrinkled because it is bunched in the bottom of the bag. Even when the bag is folded, the bottoms of the long clothes still remain in bunches in the bottom of the bag.
Special hangers are usually used in garment bags in order to conserve space. The neck portion of these garment hangers is generally hinged to fold downward and thereby bring the large triangularly shaped shoulder supporting portion of the hanger up closer to the top of the bag. However, even when such hinged hangers are used, sufficient room still exists for the shoulders to work downward off of the hangers and create wrinkles. Even with such special hinged hangers, no more effective space utilization is obtained because the bottom portion of the bag is still either unoccupied or the clothes which do occupy the bottom portion of the bag are left in bunches.
One recognized approach to achieving further packing capability in a traveling garment bag has been to provide exterior pockets within which small items can be packed. When shoes or other similarly sized items are placed in these exterior pockets, the bag can become somewhat lopsided and awkward to handle in its folded configuration. Items like shoes can be placed in the interior of the bag, but since there is no method of retaining them, they are free to move about and wrinkle and dislodge the clothes.